So, you've seen powdered pigments at the craft stores, packaged under names like Perfect Pearls and Pearl-ex, and even online manufacturers of beads and scrapbooking supplies have gotten into the idea of selling pigments. What are they and how do you use them? That�s what we are talking about today, and will be showing next week in our videocast. You must come back next Friday to watch the show, because that�s how you will really understand what we are talking about.

 

Pigments have been used since art was born. Cave dwellers used natural materials such as plant parts and iron ores to leave marks on cave walls�now kids have the same idea when they use manufactured chalks on the sidewalk. A powdered pigment is by nature, dry. You can try anything with polymer clay- eye makeup, shavings from pastels, fine glitters�but you will really want to try using finely ground powdered pigments made especially for the task. We have our own line, and in the future you will see many more carefully crafted colors.

 

Powdered pigments work great with clay because the clay is tacky before baking, and anything (everything!!! Including lint and cat hair!!!) will stick to it easily. So for this technique, you will be exploiting the tacky nature of the clay. Powdered pigments go a long way. You do not need a lot to cover a piece, in fact when you get really excited and work with it a lot, you will probably lose/waste as much as you put onto the clay. Don�t use it on a windy day�it will blow away. In fact, don�t sneeze in it�s presence- same result. You can apply it with your fingers or a brush. Ilysa likes to use her fingers, Kira has a special soft brush that was actually made for watercolor painting. You can use one color, or a few, on the same piece. As long as you have bare clay showing, you can get pigment stuck to it.

 

Here�s a starter list of ways to use powdered pigments:

Ã�·        highlight the raised areas on a textured piece of clay

Ã�·        use it on a stamp as a mold release

Ã�·        mix it into translucent clay to add tint and sparkle

Ã�·        mix it into liquid clay to add color

Ã�·        mix it into your sealer as a final splash of color and sparkle

• coat your clay, stamp into it, bake, and then sand off the high parts- see the pigment stuck in the cracks?

   

 

You will invent your own ways of using powdered pigments, why not come over to the forum or post on our flickr group to show them off?

 

Next week we will show you all this and more on Polymer Clay TV�and we are also releasing our second Downloadable tutorial. This one shows us making mini books using textured clay covers with pigment powders and papers by Basic Grey. They were kind enough to sponsor the show and sent us a selection of papers and fibers to play with. Their paper is so fun we had a really hard time deciding which ones to use! But we have created three fun kits for you, if you purchase the kit you can follow right along with the video to make your own book.

 

Remember to sign up for the newsletter this week! We will be releasing our first one shortly, and also announcing the winner of this month�s contest. All newsletter subscribers are automatically entered. This month you could win one of our kits!

 

Visit www.polymerclayproductions.com

 

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Have you ever wondered how polymer clay artists get such wonderful visual textures on their clay pieces? This episode will show the basics- how to choose a texture tool with a nicely impressed image or design, and how to get your clay into and out of the texture tool easily.

First of all, you need a rubber stamp, texture sheet, rolling pin, or some other tool with a texture on it- and that texture should be “deeply impressed.‿ What that means is if it isn’t deep enough, it won’t leave a good mark in the clay. Here are some pictures of the stamps we used.

Before and while using your texture tools, you need to decide if a release is needed. If your clay is too mushy and sticky, or if it’s hot and humid, or if your stamp or tool is really deep and your clay gets stuck in it when you practice, you will probably need a release. This is just something that will get between your clay and your tool and keep the clay from sticking inside the tool. Water is a great release with polymer clay because the clay is not water soluble. Cornstarch is another good one- but only in certain circumstances. Cornstarch will stick to your clay and get onto it- but after baking, it dissolves in water. So it’s a good choice if you are going to decorate your clay after baking it. Not a good choice, say, if you want to decorate your clay with powdered pigments or inks prior to baking, because the cornstarch will stick to the clay and get in the way of the other things you might want to put on the clay. If you have some pigment powders you can try using that as a release. Just dust the clay and stamp with powdered pigments and stamp away. You can also try using pigment inks- I stamp all over the texture sheet and press my clay onto it. The ink gets into the crevices of the stamp and the wetness keeps the clay from sticking. Experiment and see which release works best for you!

We will be releasing our first downloadable project in our Shop shortly, and it is a full length video that teaches you how to make four polymer clay magnets from start to finish, using the texture sheets available in the shop. A companion kit will be available too, so check it out!

Welcome to Episode 2 of Polymer Clay Podcast! We hope you enjoy listening all about how to add texture to your clay pieces using rubber stamps and texture sheets. Make sure to visit us next week when we do a video demonstration of everything we talked about.

Some key points when using stamps- you need to test the compatibility of your clay and your texturing tool of choice. Sometimes the clay will stick and if it does, you will need what's called a release agent. That's a fancy way of saying something needs to help the clay not stick. You can try cornstarch baby powder, because it will wash off the baked clay with water. You can also try spritzing the stamp with water before applying the clay. Also try putting the stamp onto the clay and refrigerating the whole thing for a few minutes to firm up the clay, then peel the stamp off (gently!) Another success we've had is actually using the powdered pigments that you want as part of the surface design as a release- just powder up your clay before impressing the stamp and the powder gets between the stamp and the clay and helps it peel off easily. One more thing- try putting your stamp and your clay right into the oven. Only try this with unmounted sheet rubber stamps. The 275 F heat won't hurt the stamp, and this way you can let the whole thing cool down before removing the stamp and there will be less chances for your design to get smushed in the unpeeling process. DO NOT try this with sheet plastic texture sheets or clear "rubber" stamps. Any clear plastic item can not withstand the heat and it will melt, curl, or catch on fire. This tip goes for those of you who want to make clay covered pens- never use the clear kind.

What kind of stamp or texture sheets should you use? You need to find ones that are deeply impressed. That means that the stamp is actually deep, so it will make a good mark in the clay. Try buying unmounted rubber stamps- they are nice and flexible so you can have more control. Plastic texture sheets for embossing paper work well, as do the clear ones by Scratchart that we will be featuring in next week's video. We love these because they are big, so your design can cover a larger space. They also allow you to get two designs for the price of one- an "inny" and an "outy!" Ok, I'm just being silly- what I mean is, one side impresses the design into the clay, and the other side causes a raised design to be left on the surface of the clay.

While you are working with stamps and texture sheets, you will need to develop the skill to create a good impression. Ilysa puts her clay on her work surface and pushes the texture into the clay, sometimes using her acrylic roller to assist. I, on the other hand, usually put my texture tool down on the table and push my clay into it with my fingers. Practice makes perfect and the great thing about polymer clay is that you can just mush-up your mess-up and try it again. Next week when you watch the video you'll get to see both techniques in action.

 

We enjoy demonstrating many ways to use tools with your polymer clay. We are using Premo Sculpey in this demo. Tools used include cutting blades, acrylic rod roller, fondant roller, rubber stamps, plastic texture plates for scrapbooking and plastic double sided texture sheets, rubber molds, pasta machine, knitting needle, bamboo skewer, tile, cornstarch, pigment powders, water, and I’m sure I missed some. We look forward to our future episodes when we will concentrate on one tool at a time, but for now enjoy learning all about the basics.

Award winning Polymer Clay Artist Ilysa Bierer and Art Educator Kira Slye introduce you to Polymer Clay Podcast this week. We offer an introductory exploration of the history of polymer clay, the popular polymer clay brands, and the many tools that can be used to create art and crafts with polymer clay.

A brief history: in the 1930s, a German doll artisan was looking for a new material to make her doll heads, hands, and feet. She explored the polymers that were available and was dissatisfied. Eventually she handed off the project of finding a new clay to her daughter, whose nickname was FiFi. FiFi developed the product we know today as Fimo, named after herself. When Fimo hit the artist’s market as a colored clay with no special kiln required to cure it, a few artists became involved in pushing it as a medium for more than doll art. Nan Roche wrote the first book on polymer clay as an art medium, and called it The New Clay.

Now, in 2007, there are several brands of artist’s polymer clays available on the market. Some are easier to find than others, such as the Polyform brands of Sculpey, Sculpey III, and Premo Sculpey, as well as the Fimo brands called Fimo Classic (harder to find) and Fimo Soft. Cernit is a popular German brand that is only available from retailers who import it, all online. Kato Polyclay was developed by polymer clay artist Donna Kato and it is the newest formulation of polymer clay. Ilysa’s experiences with creating art with polymer clay focused mainly on Fimo Classic which tends to be a more firm clay, very good for canework which she excels at. Kira’s experience has focused mainly on Premo, which is a softer formula. In the podcast they discuss in depth why each of them has used their favorite brand of clay.

Polymer clay has become a popular material for art and craft due to it’s working properties- you don’t need any special tools or materials to work with it, and most of them can be found in, you guessed it- your kitchen! But we caution that even though polymer clays are non-toxic, any tools, including ovens, that are used with clay should be dedicated to clay and not returned to food use. Polymer clay does release fumes during the oven curing process, and these will coat the inside of your oven. For this reason some artists will bake pieces inside an enclosed metal roasting pan, a dedicated toaster, or a dedicated countertop convection oven. Many professional artists prefer the convection oven because it has the most even cooking temperatures. We recommend that you purchase an oven thermometer to be sure your oven dials are accurate and that your clay is being cured at the right temperature.

Some popular kitchen items that can be used with clay: marble rolling pins and cutting boards, garnishing tools, pasta machines, cheese graters, food processors, bamboo skewers, fondant shapers, and vegetable peelers. Other necessary tools include a work surface such as a tile or piece of glass, a sharp thin blade, an acrylic rolling pin, rubber stamps, texture sheets, interesting textured materials such as fabric or tree bark, inks, linoleum cutting tools and brayers, wax carving tools, wire, tinfoil, magnets, and leather tools. In fact, almost any tool that can be used to shape, cut, or impress can be adapted to use with polymer clay. Any material that can withstand the usual curing temperature of 275 degrees Fahrenheit can be stuck into the clay and baked along with it and a few artists have taken this technique to interesting limits. Gemstones, Swarovski Crystals, Pearls, glass bits, metal parts, and other found objects have all been baked into polymer clay artworks with great success.

We hope you enjoy listening to our first podcast dedicated entirely to polymer clay. Make sure to come back next week and watch Polymer Clay TV- where we will demonstrate in detail the use of many tools we talked about today.

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